Jean Castex and Anne Hidalgo, July 22, 2020 in Paris.

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Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Heavy schedule for the Prime Minister on Thursday.

Jean Castex receives the mayors and presidents of metropolitan areas of Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble to discuss “possible adaptations” of the restriction measures due to the Covid-19 epidemic, Matignon announced on Wednesday.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will be the first to be received at 8:15 a.m. in Matignon, at the opening of a day which must end at 6:00 p.m. with an intervention by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who could announce a new round quote.

The mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet and the president of the metropolis Bruno Bernard are expected rue de Varenne around 9:30 a.m., before Martine Aubry and Damien Castelain (town hall and Lille metropolis) at 10:30 a.m.

Binding measures at the heart of the debate

The mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle and the president of the metropolis Christophe Ferrari must, them, exchange by videoconference at 11:45 am with Jean Castex, like the mayor of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudenc, at 2:00 pm The mayors will be accompanied for these meetings of directors general of regional health agencies and departmental prefects.

The objective is to initiate "consultation with elected officials, to assess the binding measures" which have already been put in place in these cities "and to discuss possible adaptations, reinforcement measures if the indicators were to evolve unfavorably" , we said in the entourage of the Prime Minister.

But, we know from the same source, this does not necessarily foreshadow "a threshold shift" accompanied by new restrictions announced Thursday.

Will Paris switch to maximum alert?

The executive is thus seeking to respond to the trial investigated last week by elected officials from Marseille, which is against the decision to close bars and restaurants in the Aix-Marseille metropolis.

They had denounced the unilateral decisions of the government and shouted at the "lack of consultation".

Already placed in a reinforced alert zone, with in particular the closure of bars from 10 p.m. and certain sports activities, which sounded like a first reminder of confinement, Paris has reached the theoretical criteria to switch to the alert zone maximum.

The mayor of Marseille Michèle Rubirola, recovering after an operation, for his part spoke Wednesday afternoon with the Prime Minister by telephone.

Jean Castex told him "to have heard the requests for financial aid from the city and to be ready to come quickly to Marseille" to discuss it, we learned in the entourage of Michèle Rubirola.

For her part, the mayor once again expressed the incomprehension of the Marseillais faced with the recent closure measures decided by the government, during a discussion in which the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, the prefect of Bouches-du- Rhône and the regional health authorities also participated.

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